How to read Supreme Court decisions

The suggestion below is only one of the many techniques in reading

jurisprudence. It may not work for everyone but it has been
used and has shown
positive results among members of Project Jurisprudence - Philippines. This
suggestion is called "reverse
reading" because it starts from the bottom,
proceeds to the middle of the case and ends at the first parts thereof. The
suggestion is as
follows:

1. Know the main parts of a decision.

2. Read the fallo first.
3. Identify the laws involved.
4. Read the decision or ruling of the Court.
5. Read the factual antecedents, if still needed.

KNOWING THE MAIN PARTS OF A DECISION. The reason why a law student needs to know the usual or main parts of a
decision is to, at least, have a simple map. It is easy to get lost in reading
a piece of jurisprudence, especially for those who are
doing it for the first
time.

The usual main parts of a Supreme Court decision are:

1. Citation;
2. Caption;
3. Ponente;
4. Nature of the Case;
5. Factual Background;
6. Ruling of the Lower Courts;
7. Ruling of the Court of Appeals (if any) ;
8. Arguments;
9. Counter-arguments;
10. Issues;
11. Discussion/Ruling of the Supreme Court;
12. Fallo;
13. Votes;
14. Citations; and
15. Separate Opinions.

Citation, caption. The citation is the case number (e.g., G.R.

No. 123456, September 08, 1992) while the caption states the names
of the
parties and their participation in the case (e.g., AAA, petitioner, v.
BBB, respondent. CCC and DDD, intervenors.)

Ponente. The ponente is the one who wrote the decision of the

Supreme Court for and in behalf of the majority. Immediately upon
arriving at a conclusion regarding the issue or issues in the case, the Court
shall assign a Member to write the opinion of the Court.
Should the majority
vote of the court on such conclusion be different from or contrary to the
conclusion arrived at by the ponente,
the writing of the new opinion shall be
assigned to a ponente chosen by the majority. (A.M. No. 10-4-20-SC)

According to the 1987 Constitution, "The conclusions of the Supreme Court in

any case submitted to it for decision en banc or in
division shall be reached
in consultation before the case is assigned to a Member for the writing of the
opinion of the Court. A
certification to this effect signed by the Chief
Justice shall be issued and a copy thereof attached to the record of the case
and served
upon the parties. Any Member who took no part, or dissented, or
abstained from a decision or resolution must state the reason
thereof. The
same requirements shall be observed by all lower collegiate courts." (Section
13, Article VIII)

Nature of the case. This is the part where the ponente explains why the
case reached the Supreme Court and where it came from.
Normally, the remedy is
discussed (e.g., Rule 45, Rule 65, etc.), including what judgment, decision,
order, resolution or action is
being questioned or assailed. 

Factual background, ruling of the lower courts, ruling of the Court of

Appeals, arguments and counterarguments. Basically,
the factual antecedents (the factual background or backdrop) of
the case include what the transpired before the case was filed at the
first
instance, what transpired during the trial, what orders or rulings were issued
by the lower court, whether or not the case
reached a higher court, and what
such superior court said, ruled or did.

Arguments of the petitioner or appellant and counterarguments of the

respondent or appellee are also detailed for the proper
understanding of the
reader of the contentions from both sides.

Issues. In this part of the case, the writer intelligently streamlines

the issues submitted by the parties. It is common for parties to
formulate
their own list of issues submitted to the court for decision. However, for the
purpose of writing the decision, the ponente
combines two or three and rejects
one or two in order to arrive at a list of issues that are more determinative
of the controversy.


If a party or parties submit a good list, the Supreme Court normally adopts
it. This is what happened in the case of Fujiki v. Marinay
in which the
three-item list of issues was adopted by the ponente from the pleadings of the
petitioner.

The final issues are then the basis of the next part of the decision: the
discussion or ruling of the Supreme Court.

Discussion or ruling of the Supreme Court. Ideally, the discussion

meets the issues point by point by methodically giving an
answer (e.g.,
correct or wrong), laying down the legal basis (i.e., law, jurisprudence,
etc.) and connecting the facts of the case to the
legal basis (conclusion).
Take the following as an example.

Issues

1. Did the petitioner violate the rule on hierarchy of courts when he went
directly to the Supreme Court via Rule 45 to
question the legality of the
RTC's denial of his petition for recognition of a foreign arbitral award?

2. xxx

Discussion

No violation of hierarchy of courts

Petitioner did not violate the rule on hierarchy of courts.

A Rule 45 appeal by certiorari is a remedy that allows a party to directly

raise to the Supreme Court a pure question of law.
There is no need for a
motion for reconsideration or for an appeal to the Court of Appeals. (Tuna
Processing, Inc. v.
Philippine Kingford)

Here, what petitioner raised to the Court was a pure question of law, i.e.,
whether a law exists allowing courts to recognize a
foreign arbitral award.
Therefore, the above rule was not violated.

Fallo or dispositive portion. The dispositive portion of a case is

usually written this way:

WHEREFORE, we GRANT the petition. The Order dated 31 January 2011 and the Resolution
dated 2 March 2011 of the
Regional Trial Court, Branch 107, Quezon City,
in Civil Case No. Q-11-68582 are REVERSED and SET ASIDE. The
Regional Trial Court is ORDERED to REINSTATE the petition for further proceedings in accordance with this
Decision.

SO ORDERED.

The fallo is the part of a decision that states the order of the court as a
result of the discussions above. It is that part of the decision
which the
implementer (usually, the sheriff for lower courts) should enforce. As a
general rule, when there is a conflict between the
body of the decision and
its fallo, the fallo prevails.

When there is a conflict between the dispositive portion or fallo of a

decision and the opinion of the court contained in the text or
body of the
judgment, the former prevails over the latter. An order of execution is
based on the disposition, not on the body, of the
decision. (G.R. No.
109648, November 22, 2001)

Votes. This part merely lists the Members of the Court who

concurred with or dissented against the majority opinion. It usually
looks
like this: "Brion, Del Castillo, Perez, and Perlas-Bernabe, JJ., concur."

Citations. Citations are those listed at the end of the decision

after the fallo and the votes. They are also called "footnotes." They
either
tell the basis of a certain word, phrase or paragraph or give more
explanations.

Separate opinions. The majority opinion is the controlling one

but nothing prevents other Members of the Court from writing a
separate
opinion which may either be a concurring one or a dissenting one. A
concurring opinion largely agrees with the
conclusions or results of the
majority opinion but disagrees on the legal basis, the arguments made and
other matters. 

On the other hand, a dissenting opinion is one which takes the view that different conclusions or results should have been arrived at.

A Member who disagrees with the majority opinion, its conclusions, and the
disposition of the case may submit to the Chief Justice
or Division
Chairperson a dissenting opinion, setting forth the reason for such dissent.
A Member who agrees with the result of the
case, but based on different
reason or reasons may submit a separate opinion; a concurrence "in the
result" should state the reason
for the qualified concurrence. A Member who
agrees with the main opinion, but opts to express other reasons for
concurrence may
submit a concurring opinion. The dissenting, separate, or
concurring opinion must be within one week from the date the writer of
the
majority opinion presents the decision for the signature of the Members.
(A.M. No. 10-4-20-SC)

READ THE FALLO FIRST. Reading the fallo first gives the reader a spoiler (in a good way) as to the results of the case. It is
very difficult, especially for
first timers, to understand the discussions on a piece of jurisprudence
without knowing who actually
won and how the Court actually decided the
case in the end.

If the fallo says, "WHEREFORE, we GRANT the petition," the reader's frame of
mind while reading the rest of the text will be
informed that the petitioner
won and whatever arguments the respondent has are rejected either partly or
wholly by the Court. This
way, there will be no confusion as to whose legal
arguments should be given more attention.

If the fallo says, "The Order dated 31 January 2011 and the Resolution dated
2 March 2011 of the Regional Trial Court, Branch
107, Quezon City, in Civil
Case No. Q-11-68582 are REVERSED and SET ASIDE," the reader is likewise
informed that the
Regional Trial Court's Order and Resolution are found wrong or illegal which is why the Supreme Court reversed and set them
aside. From this
viewpoint, the text becomes clear and what remains in the mind of the reader
is "Why did the Supreme Court
decide the case this way?" 

IDENTIFY THE LAWS INVOLVED. Identifying the laws involved is

important. Is this a family law issue or a political law
issue? Is this a tax remedy issue or a remedial law issue?

A Supreme Court decision can touch on different fields of law, depending on

how complicated the factual matters are. For example,
a case about death
benefits, which is a labor law issue, may touch on the meaning of death,
which is a persons law issue. Another
example is when an action for damages
is filed by one corporation against another corporation. This, of course,
requiring a reading
of torts law and corporation law.

When studying a piece of jurisprudence, always remember the purpose of

reading it. Law professors normally want their students to
zero in on
certain issues under particular fields of law.

READ THE DECISION OR THE RULING OF THE COURT. After reading the
fallo, the reader need not go straight to the top
of the text. Instead, he
should go to the part that says: "Decision of the Court" or "Ruling of the
Court." This is where the ponente
discusses the ratio decidendi and meets each issue.

The reason why reading the factual background (facts of the case) of the
case is not important at this point is the fact that the
discussion actually
mentions the facts of the case. For example, in the case Fujiki v. Marinay,
the following can be found in the
"discussion" part:

"There is therefore no reason to disallow Fujiki to simply prove as a fact

the Japanese Family Court judgment
nullifying the
marriage between
Marinay and Maekara on the ground of bigamy. While the Philippines has no
divorce law, the Japanese
Family Court judgment is fully consistent with
Philippine public policy, as
bigamous marriages are declared
void from the
beginning under Article 35(4) of the Family Code. Bigamy is a
crime under Article 349 of the Revised Penal Code. Thus,
Fujiki can prove
the existence of the Japanese Family Court judgment in accordance with Rule
132, Sections 24 and 25, in
relation to Rule 39, Section 48(b) of the Rules
of Court."

From the above, it can be inferred that the case is about declaration of
nullity of marriage. It seems that bigamy is involved and the
issue of
proving a foreign judgment was also raised. An intelligent reader can easily
theorize the facts of the case from the
discussion alone.

READ THE FACTUAL BACKGROUND, IF STILL NEEDED. If other factual

matters remain unclear, it is time to read the
narration of the factual
antecedents.